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12 January ~2009

I keep my house less than 50 degrees in the winter, so I get used to the cold.  For the same reason I sleep in a sleeping bag on a wood floor, and take walks with a tad under 40 pounds on my back.  It allows me to be prepared to head up to the wilderness anytime I want.

It snowed Friday night, and I drove up on snowpack roads for some winter backpacking with my dogs.  It didn't get above freezing the entire time.  

I did fine.  A couple of times my feet got cold, but that was solved by having a campfire going, and shedding my boots and socks and putting my bare feet on the warm rocks around the fire.

It was a full moon Sunday morning.  I had gone to sleep early Saturday night, and by 4am was rested and so took an hour long walk through the woods and rock formations.   The moon was straight overhead and everything had long shadows.  I got an uneasy feeling when we were heading into some house size boulders, and hoped there was no reason for it.  Afterwards we got back in the tent for a couple more hours sleep.

This is the fourth time little Mollie has gone backpacking, in her 5 and a half month life.  She really takes to it,  and is no longer content to follow Ben everywhere.  She is often the one out in front, with her nose to the snow, picking up rabbit or fox or deer or coyote scent.

Ben and Maggie adore her, as I do.  In the tent she slept between them, sharing the warmth of both of her buddies. Mollie's heart is full of fire, and I feel very lucky to have a dog like her.  She is on the way to be a heck of a mountain dog,  who will enrich every year she is with me.

It felt good to be secure and warm in my tent when the night winds blew hard across the mountain.  

The sunsets and sunrises were colorful and breathtaking, and there was nothing to get in my way of experiencing them to their fullness.




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